


no luck for you and i

by clockworkmoon



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, Illustrated Fic, M/M, also sousuke is bad with animals, sousuke is the worst when it comes to wooing its a scientific fact check wikipedia, sousuke thinks he is cursed, this is all kinds of weird fluff, tiny baby sousuke haru and makoto interact
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-19
Updated: 2014-08-19
Packaged: 2018-02-13 21:04:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2165163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clockworkmoon/pseuds/clockworkmoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sousuke thinks he must be cursed, because each time him and that Tachibana kid interact, he accidentally ends up making Makoto hurt in one or another way. So he decides to distance himself as much as possible, for Tachibana's sake, or rather, his health. Guess how this works out for him.</p><p>or</p><p>A stupid, fluffy and self-indulgent twist on why we still didn't see Makoto and Sousuke interact+ illustrations, too!</p>
            </blockquote>





	no luck for you and i

**Author's Note:**

> I never in my adult life wrote a finished one-shot, and wanted to give it a try.  
> Also, this is my take on explaining why the hell Sousuke and Makoto haven't ineracted yet.  
> Hope you will enjoy it with my art, too!
> 
> Also, I am physically unable to not make these two part for over five years before allowing them together. I just can't imagine them being together before they both grow up, sob

                                                                                

 

The first time they meet, they won’t remember it in the years to come.

They are four and a half years old, and it's a warm summer afternoon. Sousuke's parents come to Iwatobi for business, and let the kid go play outside under his grandma's watchful eye.

There are three children on the playground, two sharing a swing, taking turns at pushing each other or swinging together on one seat. Sousuke eyes them shyly, but doesn't talk, because they seem to be enjoying themselves without any third parts butting in.

Then, they are together in the sandbox, and when the dark haired boy leaves the sand to play in the near by puddle, the other boy calls after him and rushes to join him quickly, crying 'Haru-chan, the puddle is dirty!' but then he laughs, because in his hurry he trips and dives in it, splashing the drops all over their clothes, and they engage in a very lively puddle fight, smearing the mud all over their clothes, hands creating cakes and cookies with wet sand, their laughter ringing in the air. Sousuke takes few steps to join them, because it looks like some amazing fun, and the taller boy even smiles at him and waves, and Sousuke runs few last steps to close the distance. To signal how ready he is to play with them, he throws some sand at them, to add to the mess.

It hits the taller boy in his wide open eyes, and it's a second till he's crying and rubbing his small fists at his eyes.

Sousuke's grandma calms the boy down until his parents arrive, and Sousuke is taken home soon after that, where he gets the biggest scolding of his childhood.

 

===

 

The first time Makoto and Sousuke meet and can remember it, they are ten.

Sousuke invites himself over to Rin's place, and Rin is happy to see him. They play video games and are just about to go to swim when Rin says 'You will meet my new friends!', and Sousuke would give anything not to do this. But, silver linings, he may get a chance at getting back at stupid Nanase, (about whom Rin wrote him about 50 postcards) for taking Rin away. He waits out till Rin detaches himself from Nanase, and strikes down, sneakily letting his leg drag behind him so he can trip Nanase up. However, be it sheer luck, or maybe in reality Nanase is more observant that Sousuke gave him credit for, he hops over the leg as if Sousuke's trap was nothing to be concerned about.

Sousuke has no time to pull his leg back, when suddenly Nanase's tall friend, who hurriedly follows Nanase to get into the pool as well, falls in Sasuke's trap. Everything goes silent for few moments as Sousuke can't do anything but watch in horror as the boy trips over his foot, and falls hard on the ground, too fast to properly cushion the impact. When the boy sits up, with Nanase and Rin's hands hauling him off the ground and putting him on a bench, he's missing a tooth and has blood smeared all over his face.

Sousuke gapes at that, but he's too afraid Rin may get angry with him if he admitted it's his fault and that he tried to hurt Nanase, so he keeps silent, and stays aside.

The boy, Tachibana, smiles at his friends, and Sousuke feels something drop in his stomach with guilt.

'It's okay, this tooth was loose anyway, I'm glad I didn't have to pull it by myself.' he says as he gets up, and Sousuke has to jump in the pool, as soon as he can do that without it being suspicious, because he feels his face burning with embarrassment.

He thinks he hears Nanase say something to Tachibana, at what Tachibana shakes his head and says 'It probably wasn't on purpose.'

                                                                  

 

===

 

The second time they meet, it's a year and a half later, Rin is already in Australia, and Sousuke  is still patiently waiting for the reply to his letter. The last time he's heard from Rin was over two months ago, and Sousuke is getting worried and sad, unable to focus on half of his daily activities, because he can feel the pressure of these feelings gnawing at him.

They are all together in the same race event, Sousuke and Rin’s friends, and when he sees Nanase and Tachibana laughing in an aisle next to him, he feels boiling anger that almost deafens his senses, with the rush of blood in his ears and way too loud, erratic thump thump of his heart. When a sound of the whistle cuts his ears, he jumps in the water with way more negativity than intended, and it seems as if the water gets dirtier. At the last turn, he kicks with more force than he ever felt, and it feels so good, if not for the fact that he realises the first kick he makes after pushing himself off the pool tile connects for a horrible second with someone's flesh.

Sousuke finishes first, but he doesn't get much attention as most of the people around are straining their necks to see how another boy is being pulled from the water, his face twisted in a painful grimace. Only when he notices it's Nanase who is first by the boy's side, Sousuke realises it's Tachibana he has hurt. Again.

He stares at them for few minutes, until Nanase feels his gaze burning into the back of his neck and he twists to look over his shoulder, never letting go of Makoto’s arm.

His face is impassive as always, but Sousuke turns away and escapes to the lockers.

He's afraid he will be disqualified because of the whole situation, but later on he learns Makoto said he didn't know where the kick came from and the jury decides to not cancel the event(accidents happen, they say), so Sousuke keeps the trophy for taking the first place.

He doesn't put it on display anywhere, though. Somehow it would feel wrong. Instead, whenever someone asks him later on when was the first time he's won the first prize in a race, he says it was a competition that happened a month later from his actual first win. And to some extent this is true, because it is indeed his first victory, his first _fair_ victory, without kicking anyone in the stomach.

                                                             

===

 

The third time they meet is the first time without either Rin or Haru. It's years later, and Sousuke is visiting his grandma in Iwatobi- not entirely out of his own will. His parents forced him to go, threatening him to sign him out of the summer swimming classes he managed to get into. He really wanted to go, he worked super hard to keep up decent grades and become good enough to get into the programme, so he will never let anything like skipping a holidays at grandma's get in his way.

He's dragging a suitcase full of homemade snacks his mom made him carry with him, and all the 'useful' items his parents put in there. His mood couldn't get worse, and he half-expects it to rain any second to make him even more miserable.

When he sees a cat, laying sprawled on the stairs, it's not that he _wants to_ step on its tail. But the stupid animal doesn't want to move, and Sousuke is certainly _not_ walking around it or lifting the heavy bag over his head just so he wouldn't disturb a stupid cat. He tries not to step on it, but the startled animal moves, and Sousuke ends up kicking it slightly, by accident. Cat hisses and claws himself into Sousuke's calf, and shreds his trousers mercilessly, cutting his skin along with it. Sousuke yelps and shouts and falls, because it's impossible to maintain a standing position while he tries to shake the cat off his leg, clutching onto the bag way bigger than his  fourteen years old self.

He falls on his face, feels small stones bruise his cheeks and sand grit between his teeth and sting him in the eye. Cat finally gets bored and lets go of his leg, and Sousuke hears some rustle from behind, so he turns to lay on the back, and he sees the most beautiful creature alive. Setting sun drowns the boy in mixture of lights and colours and his green eyes almost seem radioactive, they are so gorgeously radiant. A name surfs in Sousuke's memories, Tachibana, Nanase's friend, he remembers him vaguely from the past(apart from the fact that two times they met, he managed to somehow injure him), but the atmosphere about him is different this time, or maybe it's just lack of stupid Nanase around him. Tachibana leans over him with a worried look, and he says 'You poor thing... are you alright?'

                                                                                  

Sousuke opens his mouth to say something witty, but all he manages is a weak moan of pain and a 'Could be better.'

Makoto startles at that, and Sousuke realises second too late that Makoto was talking not to him, but to the _cat_.

'Oh.' Makoto seems to finally notice him, and Sousuke wants to burn alive (and if the heat on his cheeks is any indicator, he as well might, soon). 'Oh... are you okay? Sorry, he gets really nervous when someone tries to walk above him.' Makoto holds the beast close to his chest, and Sousuke would be afraid for his life if not for the fact that the freaking animal looks so _smug_ and happy in Tachibana's embrace. Tachibana takes two steps back, letting the cat to jump on the ground. It sits where it landed, by Makoto's feet, its tail moving dangerously.

Tachibana scrubs it behind the ears, then gets his attention back at Sousuke, offering a hand to help him off the ground.

'Thank you.' Sousuke says, brushing all the sand and dust off his trousers. Tachibana smiles and nods, eyes on the cat. 'So, where are are you going? Do you need some help?' Tachibana gestures at the gigantic bag. Sousuke shakes his head and takes a step back.

Last two times they interacted, even if involuntarily, he ended up injuring Makoto in one or another way. He's not taking chances. He may hate Nanase, but Tachibana is alright, and he has no intention of causing Tachibana more unpleasantness. Especially now that Sousuke discovered how Tachibana turned from this sort of chubby kid into as tall as himself, handsome boy. In few years time, who knows, maybe they can get it on. Whatever getting it on meant- he heard older boys at the swimming club use it about the girls they liked, so. As long as it didn't mean kicking Tachibana in the stomach more than he already had, he could get it on however much they wanted.

                                                                                    

'It's okay. My grandma lives near by, it's by the shore.' he starts climbing up the stairs again when he hears Tachibana running up to him. 'Just turn over here. It's a shortcut, you won't have to climb all the stairs.' Sousuke nods at the helpful tip with a tiniest smile, and shoves hands in pockets. Makoto beams at him a bit, and lifts the cat that started rubbing itself over his legs.

Sousuke is so glad that at least this time, he doesn't make Tachibana hurt by accident.

That is, until he turns around quickly and the metal buckles from the backpack he's carrying on his shoulders hit Tachibana in the face.

Cat hisses, Tachibana closes his eyes as he clutches at his face, and Sousuke stands on the stairs like an idiot, until he chokes out a very poor sounding ‘Sorry...’ and starts walking again, jumping three steps at a time, completely ignoring Tachibana's helpful shortcut. He shakes his head to not let his eyes tear up under any circumstances, and his ears burn with embarrassment well into the evening.

 

===

 

Puberty is merciful on him, and when he joins Samezuka Academy for his third year of high school, he's taller, wider, and according to some people(his mom, repeatedly, not that he needs much assurance, he owns a _mirror_ ), handsomer.

He's happy to reunite with Rin, to share a room with him, to swim with him again, even if he's even more than ever annoyed that Rin didn't get over his stupid obsession with Nanase. But what he couldn't do when they were kids, he hopes he can achieve now, maybe with less tripping up, and with more sophisticated methods. Anything to make sure Rin doesn't waste his potential and years of hard work over some guy who doesn't even know what he wants to do with himself. Him and Rin, they have a bright future, and he doesn't like to think that his shoulder tends to hurt more after more regimeous training sessions. He's been scouted, Rin is going to be scouted soon enough, and they will live happily ever after and swim together till the end of the world, winning all the races and becoming best swimmers, always pushing each other to their limits.

 

When Rin tells him they are having a joint practice with his old friends, Sousuke can't sleep for two nights.

His hatred for Nanase put aside, he doesn't want to think how he will hurt Tachibana _this_ time, and considering how stronger and bigger he grew during past four years, he's kind of terrified of how the events may turn out. This seems to be a pattern, that he causes Tachibana pain each time they meet, so he swears not to acknowledge Tachibana's presence under any circumstances, maybe this way nothing bad will happen.

When the morning welcomes them, Sousuke could do everything just to not go to the practice. He couldn't catch any sleep, his whole body is tired and sore, and after a sleepless night full of images of Tachibana ending up in a hospital, his mood is sour and he almost screams when he sees himself in the mirror. The bags under his eyes make him look even more annoyed than he actually feels.

Rin mistakes his foul mood for anger at having to share the pool with the Iwatobi club, so on top of everything, he has to listen Rin nag at his childish attitude.

The practice runs smoothly, he tries not to look at Nanase too much, and he ignores Tachibana from the start till the minute, until the Iwatobi jerseys disappear behind their school gate.

'Is Yamazaki-san okay?' asks Nitori, and later in the room, Rin gives him a piece of his mind.

'What the hell was that? Makoto greeted you and everything, and you didn't even glance at him, this is just plain rude, man.' he says as he puts the biology books on the shelf, cleaning up. 'Maybe you don't remember him, but heads up, if you didn't notice- he's the nicest person in the world, so get over yourself. I wouldn't say anything in front of the rest of our team, but seriously, Sousuke? Even they noticed something was off.'

Sousuke grumbles something inaudible and shifts on his bed. He can't tell Rin about that stuff from the times they were younger, because it'd mean he has to confess how he wanted to physically assault Nanase just to get back at him for snatching Rin. Somehow he didn't think Rin would like it.

'Just..  be more civil around them, ok?' with that, Rin got the light off and they didn't utter a word after.

                                                                   

With the year getting closer and closer to their graduation, the joint practices became more frequent as well, because that band of weirdoes couldn't understand that friendship isn't the most important thing in the world. To Sousuke, making sure he doesn't kill Tachibana by sitting too close to him, on the other hand, was a serious matter and a mission in itself.

He cut it close few times. But he tried to keep the biggest distance from Tachibana as possible, never allowing Rin to pair them up in practice relays, or to measure their times by racing each other. Tachibana has looked at him with confusion painted on his face more than once. One time, he even approaches Sousuke on his own, but Sousuke ignorea whatever Makoto said and turns away to walk somewhere that could be considered safe distance. But the second they were near each other, Makoto managed to step on something sharp and split his heel a bit. The dangerous thing turned out to be Sousuke's spare swimming goggles.

He starts to think he is cursed.

                                                                      

One day, Rin decides to organise an outing for all of them. Simple get-together to visit the town, walk around, buy some useless merch and waste time they could be spending on training.  The group looks careless and happy, but Sousuke thinks _this? this is a nightmare_. Not only he can't bury himself in training, so he has no distraction and _has to_ observe Rin and Nanase interact, on top of everything he has to do his best to not approach Makoto under any circumstances. He talks to Gou, he even allows himself to chat with Momo and Nitori, somehow finds himself between Hazuki and Ryuugazaki at some point, too, so thankfully there is barely any chance to stumble into Makoto.

Unfortunately, when he lets himself unfocus for few minutes to oggle new line of his favorite designer swim leggings, everyone disappears, and of course he has to run into Makoto.

Makoto smiles apologetically at him, and Sousuke begs silently for someone, _anyone_ , to show up and separate them.

                                                                               

The thing is, even though he never hated Makoto, now, due to the intensified frequency with which he got to see him, with addition of that rule he put on himself not to speak to Makoto ever again, he started getting really, _really_ attracted to him, and it wasn't funny at all. Sousuke could be described in many words, but selfless wasn't one of them. He suspected Makoto was selfless for the entirety of their whole _group_ , but the problem was- Sousuke was as far from being selfless as one could imagine. Thus, he knew that as soon as he comes to terms with the fact that he'd gladly pin Makoto to a wall and make out with him till there is no air in either of them to breathe anymore, he won't care about anything else, even about the fact that Makoto could probably end up horribly hurt if they ever got so close to each other. Considering he's lost his tooth and was kicked in the stomach when they weren't even talking to each other, and all. So if they were more intimate, Sousuke couldn't predict what the fate would have prepared for them.

Instead of running away to save them both the trouble, awkwardness and probably very high hospital bills, he shoves hands in his pockets and asks 'So, what's up?' because he's the biggest idiot in the world.

Makoto's face shows nothing but surprise, and it takes him several seconds to get back to himself. 'Alright. What... what happened?' he doesn't need to specify, Sousuke knows anyway what the question means.

He thinks, _you only live once_ , and he shifts, looking away from Makoto. 'I thought maybe i could explain myself, so. Whenever you are free and would like to meet with me, let me know. Here is no place to discuss it.' He is still not looking at Makoto, but he can tell from his voice Makoto's smiling. ' I actually feel relieved. And, this evening is fine by me. I can’t wait to hear you out.'

And then suddenly everyone floods them, but Makoto isn't hurt in any way after that short talk, and Sousuke thinks, maybe they could get it on(he finally learnt what the phrase meant) and it has a chance.

  


Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.

In all fairness, Sousuke gets to spend an entirely safe and pleasant evening in Makoto’s company. They walk comfortably close to each other, shoulders brushing as Makoto leads the way, and Sousuke talks. He tells Makoto about how he doesn’t want to interact with him because so far it only brought Makoto pain, and he even sort of apologises for that day when they were nine, because it’s still eating him from time to time that he didn’t confess it was his fault, the lost tooth and the stomach kick. Makoto knows it was him, but he laughs and says to let bygones be bygones and Sousuke really wants to kiss him right here right now, and since this whole day is turning out really great, contradicted to what he's expected, he acts upon it.

The kiss is chaste and quick, but Makoto doesn’t push him away, and even if he looks even more confused than Sousuke feels, he simply says ‘So, I take it we can meet another day again, and you will start talking to me normally during practice?’

 

And Sousuke does. Rin is more than happy that Sousuke finally managed to sort out his shit Makoto, and somehow, through Makoto, Sousuke even stops hating Nanase that much, maybe because suddenly he has another person to talk to besides Rin. Days fly faster and faster, and even if Sousuke is still adamant about not letting them get too intimate, after a full two and a half month without any accidents(some minor tripping and hitting Makoto's face with a ball he was supposed to catch don't count, because that happens to _anyone_ , okay), he finally gives in and asks Makoto out for a proper date.

 

It's a disaster from the first seconds.

He knows Makoto loves chocolate, so he buys him a mocha, but his hands are shaking so horribly, he spills it all over Makoto’s shoes. He’s wearing _sandals_.

They spent a very lovely hour in the nearby toilet, washing off the shoes and pouring cold water over Makoto’s toes.

They go to the cinema, because there is nothing bad that can happen in a cinema, right?

During one of the romantic scenes, he tries to put his arm around Makoto, but aims wrong, and ends up elbowing him in the face, not hard enough to make any damage, but Makoto yelps and spills the XXL coke and a large portion of snacks all over them. Sousuke finds some nachos dip in his hair even two days later.

                                                                        

Then finally, they decide to call it a day, cutting what was planned to be a full coffee-cinema-dinner at a restaurant date at first. Seemingly never able to learn his lesson, Sousuke stupidly proposes to walk Makoto home, even if they should do everything but walk somewhere together. Especially now that Sousuke has gathered some solid evidence that he is dangerous to Makoto’s well being. Surprisingly, they make it safely to Makoto’s door, where Sousuke decides to play it bold as he tries to swirl Makoto around and kiss him goodnight, like he saw in the movie today. If this is their first and last date, he wants to leave a long lasting impression and go with a bang.

He sort of  does. What he doesn’t do, is to account for them being on the stairs and Makoto still having wet shoes from all the drinks that were spilt over them, and they both slip, and Makoto ends up with a sprained ankle.

 

They decide that maybe Sousuke was right, and they should keep their distance, because sometimes, there are things out of this world that are beyond the understanding of simple human beings. So, they promise to stay away from each other.

No one really gets why there's a sudden coldness that spreads between them again, and everyone guesses it's because they got together and split up. Which is probably better for them to believe than to know the weird reality of this situation.

=

The fourty seventh time they meet, they don't talk. It's a general farewell gathering, everyone saying goodbyes to Rin and Sousuke.

Sousuke feels that maybe he should do something, if the ache in his chest or the sad smile Makoto gives him as they part are any indicators, but then he is already spotting their train to Tokyo, he is soon to live his dream, and somehow, even though he’d like Makoto to take part in it, he knows he shouldn’t say anything, because it can only complicate everything.

So he doesn’t try to open the fresh wounds, and he doesn’t even say goodbye nor try to contact Makoto ever again.

===

The fourty eight time they meet, it’s almost eight years later and he founds himself driving around Iwatobi.

He has lost contact with Rin by then, ever since the pain in his shoulder turned into a permanent shoulder injury that crossed out his swimming career. He wasn't the best person at that point, ignored Rin's multiply attempts at help, and he pushed him away too bruskly one time too many, and it was the last straw to the point that Rin didn't try talk to him ever again. So, he ended up without his purpose and without his best friend. And when it all became too much, all he could think of was to go to Iwatobi and drive around, visit places he used to go to when his life was simpler, where even though he didn't care or realise, he had a group of people who made him smile, in the town he thought would bring his downfall but that actually brought him only fun and bright memories.

He drives aimlessly, trying to re-live some of the best moments he could still recall, when suddenly his car jerks, and Sousuke thanks god that he has the seat belt on as both his and the car he has hit rotate for several dangerous seconds, before stopping at the rail that segregates road from the narrow cliff. He gets out of the car, shocked to the core, since he has never even as much as scratched his car before. He hopes the other driver is alright, so when he gets closer to the car and sees the door opening, he lets out a breathes a sigh of relief.

It's getting dark, but he doesn't have to see the face of the person whose car he has crashed into. Somehow, even before he makes out the familiar, tall figure emerging from the inside of the wrecked car, he knows.

He stares at Makoto and really wants to feel disbelief, but somehow he can't.

They regard each other for a minute in silence, then look over the smashed cars, and they can't help but just burst into laughter as they wait for the police and the road emergency car so their vehicles can be towed  to the repair shop. He often dreamt about getting another chance to meet Makoto again, for a fresh start or for picking up where they left, or even to just see if anything changed about his curse; and here they are, at eleven pm on a chilly autumn Tuesday, sitting on the road by the side of their destroyed cars, bruised and shocked. He never imagined he would get to meet Makoto again like _that_ , but on the other hand, now he thinks about it, is there any _other_ way they were supposed to meet again, considering their history?

As the laughter dies out, Makoto says 'I don't think anything worse can happen over a dinner now, and you know, you kind of owe me, after all the kicking and hitting you made me go through.' and Sousuke laughs again, because if Makoto Tachibana wants him to pay off that debt after all, this time, alll he has to do is shut his mouth and comply.

  
                                                                  


**Author's Note:**

> hiyoh my tumblr is twinkmastertoudou/jensuisdraws and im addicted to soumako you need to forgive me  
> Also, apparently I am physically unable to not make these two part for over five years before allowing them together. I just can't imagine them being together before they both grow up, sob


End file.
